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Sunday, 29 September 2013

A Compulsive Behaviour

If you are flea market visitor, you may have noticed that there two
kinds of people rummaging through the stands with ceramics. Some visitors take
the delicate ceramics in their hands and immediately turn them around to check
the potter’s stamp or signature, while others don't.

The people who do this are either potters themselves or some really big
experts or art collectors on their flea market treasury hunt. I see the same
pattern with visitors in my studio.

I am not talking about having the pot in your hands for five minutes and
then checking out the stamp. What I am talking about is some kind of tick or
compulsive behaviour that just forces one to immediately turn that piece of
ceramics and look at its bottom.

I definitely belong to the first category. It doesn’t mean that I am
judging the pot on the basis of the stamp. If I don’t like the piece I am
probably not going to take it in my hands in the first place. In my case it is
the curiosity and interest in what other things the stamp will tell me about
that piece.

Even my two and a half year old son turns every cup upside down to look
for his Mama’s stamp. Well, I just realized that there is a third group of
people that are doing it: potter’s kids.

The problematic part starts when this happens outside of the flea market
or some artist’s studio. Imagine it taking place in a fancy restaurant with
your partner on the opposite side of the table. The candle flickering, the
elegant wine glasses glittering, the gentle sound of piano caressing your ears.
He holds your hands, looks deep into your eyes and the discreet waiter serves a
tasty meal.

What do you do first? You let your hands loose to lift your plate high
to check the stamp underneath. Have you ever done this? You can certainly
confuse a bunch of people this way.

This is the stamp I have been using to mark my pottery for many years.
What does the danci mean? Well, this is a subject for another post.